Dancing: Better With Two
by Zoe Saugin
Summary: 2nd in the Dancing series. Post-GitF, Rose and the Doctor dance and have a heart-to-heart. 10Rose


_Author's Note: Okay, SO, here is part 2 in the Dancing series, and I am throwing my hat into the ring to write about GitF. I know, it's so overdone that everyone's done it, but I just gotta, so if it bores you, stop reading, I guess…_

**Dedicated to the absotively posolutely amazingest Katie. Happy birthday (again!)**

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Dancing: Better With Two

The Doctor had been searching through the TARDIS for the better part of two hours and had come to a conclusion.

Rose Tyler had vanished.

She had been there when he had returned with Reinette's letter, but she and Mickey had left the console room while he read it. And now, he had seen Mickey twice, but still no Rose. Mickey had shrugged and said that he had seen Rose over an hour ago leaving the bathroom, before shooting a pitying look at the Doctor, which he found strange.

The Doctor had checked her room, the kitchen, the pool, the "clothing" room (as Rose had dubbed it), the entertainment center, Mickey's room, her room again, the bathroom, and still no sign of her.

He was starting to get worried.

He mentally pleaded with the TARDIS to help him look. She reluctantly agreed, and he found himself in front of the door to the library. He pushed open one of the doors, it swung silently, and he could hear music coming from inside. He stepped over the threshold, and began to look for the source of the music.

He moved past the rows of books, looking down each one. Eventually, he saw her at the end of one, her back turned to him as she climbed a ladder. Next to her was a radio that he remembered doing some jiggery-pokery on after Rose complained that she never got to hear music anymore.

As he got closer, he could see that Rose was removing a book from the shelf and moving it to a position farther along the shelf. He moved closer until he was standing at the foot of the ladder. Rose was running her fingers over the spines of the books, occasionally removing or moving one.

The Doctor decided to make his presence known. "Rose Tyler, defender of my library!" He said, as jovially as possible.

Rose yelped in shock and slipped, falling backwards off the ladder and scattering books everywhere. The Doctor caught her before she hit the ground, but couldn't stop her feet from hitting the ground. She winced in pain, but jumped out of his arms before he could check to see if she was okay. She avoided his eyes, and bent to collect the books that had fallen.

"Rose, are you okay?" he asked, concerned, as he saw her wincing as she put her weight on her feet.

"I'm fine. I just jarred my ankles, is all." She said, climbing up the ladder again, and began to put the books into the right spots.

"Maybe you should—" The Doctor started.

"I'm _fine_." Insisted Rose, placing a stack of books in the Doctor's arms, still avoiding his eyes. She carried the ladder to a different section and then took the books from the Doctor, once again climbing the ladder.

"Rose?" asked the Doctor slowly, watching as she studiously avoided eye contact.

"Hmmm?" responded Rose, taking a book from the stack and placing it in its place.

"Why are you avoiding me?" The Doctor was never one for tact.

"Who says I'm avoiding you?" asked Rose, still refusing to meet his eyes.

"Well, the fact that I've been looking for you for almost two hours, and the fact that you won't go within six feet of me unless absolutely necessary, and the way you still won't meet my eyes." He said, ticking it off on his hands.

"Well, I'm not." She said, climbing down the ladder. "Glad we had this talk. Let's do it again sometime." She moved to grab the radio, but the Doctor caught her arm and pulled her into a dance.

"Doctor, what are you—" Rose was interrupted by the Doctor quietly shushing her. The pair swayed back and forth to the music issuing from the radio. Rose bit her lip, uncomfortable.

"Penny for your thoughts." The Doctor broke the silence.

Rose tilted her head, considering, and then began to improvise. "Suppose you were this person named…Billie. And you met this guy…David. And you traveled together for a while, in a truck that you never got a license for because you thought David would always be around. And then, you meet this other bloke, named Noel, and he starts traveling with you, too. And one day you go to a bar, and David meets this girl Sophia and leaves you to travel with her but then comes back five and a half hours later saying that the car broke down so Sophia's going to travel with you but when he goes to get Sophia, she's already run off with someone else so he comes back heartbroken but still doesn't think about you and how you couldn't drive the truck so you're stranded at the bar and there's creepy people around sizing you up to see how much money they could make from your organs and how would you feel?"

The Doctor was staring at her, trying to figure out how she had said all that seemingly without taking a breath. He blinked. "Very annoyed, I would think."

"Ya think?" asked Rose, putting her hand on his shoulder as they continued to dance.

"I've just gotta ask…why David?" asked the Doctor. Rose blushed.

"No reason." She said, shrugging.

"So…you're mad at me because I abandoned you to go rescue Reinette." Said the Doctor, trying to understand.

"I can't fly the TARDIS! You _know_ that! Mickey can't do it, either! So we didn't really have a choice about staying. You just swanned off to save some high-class French prostitute who's apparently not only prettier, smarter, and a better gardener than me, she's also irresistible to anyone she meets! Hell, I only spent half a minute with her and she was already talking about how we could _share_ you, but that wasn't really an issue, because you really aren't mine to _share_, and it's not like _you_ cared enough about me to ask my opinion about saving the day. Great. I know you have a hero complex, but time was you would have made sure that your companions were safe." She stopped, and took a deep breath, and stepped back, before fleeing the library as the Doctor watched, struck dumb for the first time in years.

* * *

Rose lay on her bed, not crying, not sleeping. She just lay there, thinking.

She heard a small knock, but didn't get up. The door cracked open, and the Doctor entered and sat at the end of her bed.

"Rose, I—"

She sat up and interrupted him. "Doctor, traveling with you—I love it more than anything." She sighed. "I know you can't walk away from a fight, and I understand it. But please give us the chance to get home."

He nodded, and she smiled sadly. "So…good talk?"

"Good talk." He affirmed. He got up to leave, then stopped. "Why do you think she's better than you?"

"She was this great lady, and did all these things and was sophisticated and posh." Rose said. "I'm not."

"Yeah…" his face broke into a wicked grin. "But I bet you're a better dancer."

Rose watched him leave, his words not really registering. She shook her head, and her eyes widened. "Doctor! You and her…dancing…Doctor!" She threw up the covers and began to chase after the Doctor, their laughter echoing through the TARDIS.

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_Okay, I guess it's less fluffy…Also coming later…3__rd__ part of the Dancing series…Rose/Owen (from Torchwood). What can I say, they're Katie's OTP._


End file.
